Hello all, its been a while since I played this game so I basically am starting new. I've played Haven and Hearth on and off for a few years and I tried this for a bit in 2012.

Lately I have been been really craving the type of gameplay this game gives again and decided to check in and now seems like a good time to really get back into the game with the reset and all.

I will be relearning all I can in these two weeks leading up to the reset but would love to join a group if anyone is willing to take me in. I prefer a more peaceful style of play involving mostly crafting, farming, and gathering ect.

Hello and welcome to Salem. This is most enjoyable online game of the world for sure. lol but i really need to remind you something. All players are now waiting for the wipe and the new patch in the game. After that patch all players will be on the same server. I think you can find a group easly.

The game that most of us 'normal' folks know and what is about to occur is as different from A to Z

1. Watch your back- need to hit the john, eat, answer the phone, etc... log out. Go afk and you might find yourself KO and looted if not a corpse on the ground when you return

2. Never leave 'Boston' by foot... heard lots of stories of raiders waiting at the fringe of 'city limits' for newbs to gank. See #1

3. Pclaim/Town Concerns A. Mineshafts- you've built a raider magnet. Fact is nobody on the outside knows what stored there. Could be nothing and could be 100% humus or some other desperately desired resource. Don't build your claim around a mine unless you can take an ingot(s) to the edge and leave them a sample for anyone to know it's worthless and/or can defend it from all takers. B. Under current rules- your walls must be 5 spaces apart from each other. Seen too many to count/recall... folks putting walls next to each other or one space away. IE. Destroying a stone wall... will do 75% damage to the stone wall behind it in 1 spaces distance. That is one full space between walls. We can all hope this changes a little; but this is what's known as Splash Damage. Tree Walls are known to absorb this; but tree walls also take time to build. From experience a 35 humor toon can breach a 75% damaged wall w/o eating.. I'd be under <15 humors at the end but the wall would be breached. C. Braziers currently only active after the 2nd or 3rd scent is left... so you need at least 2 good walls (3 is best with strongest wall the last wall) and a **** load of braziers...40+ (at 20 coal each) to provide a decent defense. Stone walls are pretty easy for construction- most start with them... If you are a total newb... telling you stone should be 2nd... march out 5-7 spaces from your ideal last boundary and build a stone wall. Defenses won't activate if they aren't in the claimed zone...

Then build a 2nd wall even further out with wood... while you wait for your timber piles to mature while you build your best, most defensible wall with plank. The theory is... raiders break the wood wall.. (easy)... then the stone wall (harder) and take the full brunt of your brazier defenses breaking through final wall (plank- toughest defense there is in the game)... etc...

Limit your chests and boxes- maximize your sheds. Raiders routinely just pickup chest and take them outside brazier range before they begin looting. IF all you have are sheds... raiders are screwed. There will be no easy 'loot' on your holding!

This is all old school rules; but assuming this update affects gluttony and nothing else... this stuff will be important going forward for new folks.

Those folks who built 3 stone walls next to each other... did raiders a huge favor... destruction of the first wall did most of the damage to the 2nd and so on. Don't encrourage folks to take you out with little or no effort. Build in spacing between wall defenses and tree wall soakers and lots upon lots of braziers... 40-50+ is average... 100's if you can manage it. Besides spacing of 4 is enough for cotton crops or hay if you need it... always a good use of space...

I never read or heard or a solid test proving torch and brazier defenses worked at the same time... regardless torch does proportionately less damage than brazier...